I still can't figure how the aaf gets drawn into the me. Memphis / Birmingham trap but then gets odd balls like Phoenix and Atlanta. Oh well. Sets up things well for XFL the next year. With a year to promote.

The AAF made a mistake in choosing so many mid-sized media markets. The only top ten media market they put a team in is Atlanta. Phoneix is a "major" U.S. market too, but if you're going to share a market with the NFL, you might as well make it a huge market with a lot of revenue potential. Birmingham, Memphis, San Antonio, Orlando, and Salt Lake City are much weaker media markets with little revenue potential. San Diego was by far the smartest market choice, but it is not going to be enough to save the AAF from bankruptcy. They will continue to operate in the red in those markets until they finally fold.

You need a healthy mix of major media markets and smaller ones that do not have football. A professional sports league should be tapping NYC, LA, and Chicago if it hopes to ever make money down the road because those are by far the three strongest media markets with the highest advertising revenue potential. You could still potentially make much more money from New York than you could from Memphis (despite the fact that New York had two football teams and Memphis has (had) none). I think Vince should avoid the smaller markets the AAF has already tapped since making money in those markets would have been an uphill battle even without a competing AAF team. The verdict is still out on what Vince will do, but I am hoping to see something like this:

This would include a mix of 5 top 10 U.S. media markets with significant revenue potential, 1 top 30 market with no NFL team, and 2 smaller markets with no NFL team. I think this would be a good mix of tapping big markets and also drawing in fans from untapped areas.